20 Thalers

Commerz-Bank in Lübeck was a private commercial bank operating under the monetary conventions of the German states before unification, issuing notes denominated in Thalers — a currency that would be phased out within a decade as the new German Reich standardized on the Mark. This 20 Thaler note appeared just six years before that transition, making the entire series short-lived by design rather than by failure.

Giesecke & Devrient had only recently established themselves as a serious banknote printer by 1865, and Lübeck's business represents early commercial work from a firm that would go on to dominate German currency production. The guilloche underprint was their signature security response to the period's rampant photographic counterfeiting threat.